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Literary analysis essay of the house of usher
The fall of the house of usher how the setting affects the characters
Examine the symbolism in “the fall of the house of usher.”
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The Fall Of The House Of Usher Comparison Between Book vs. Movie How would you act if you had a family like the Usher’s? The short story by Edgar Allen Poe was published in 1839. Throughout the story lots of madness, incest, grotesque, and sickness was involved. The most grotesque thing in the story was one of the main characters, Roderick Usher. Roderick Usher was a sick man that wanted to be the only Usher left in his family.
There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect.” In the description of the house in “The Fall of the House of the Usher” is very displeasing as well. “…And upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—which I can compare no earthly sensation more properly then to the after-dream of the reveler upon opium.” Even the narrator describes a depressing feeling from the look of the Usher house. There is a similar eerie setting in “The Man of the Crowd.”
In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher,”
The crack in the house and the dead trees imply that the house and its surroundings are not sturdy or promising. These elements indicate that a positive outcome is not expected. The thunder,strange light, and mist create a spooky feeling for the reader. In "The Fall of the house of Usher," Edgar Allan Poe creates suspense and fear in the reader. He also tries to convince the reader not to let fear overcome him.
Words like “dull” and “oppressive” along with phrases like “soundless day in the autumn of year,...” (Poe, line 1) help prevail the darkness lingering outside the house of Usher as if all the evils of the world would be spent on one final blow on the Usher family. As the story progresses however, both Usher and the narrator end up going crazy as the gloomy weather and the reawakening of Usher’s twin sister both contribute to the evils destroying the Usher family.
Deep within every person there is a sense of fear that terrifies them for life. In Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Fall of the house of Usher”, the narrator enters the home of a lifelong friend, Usher, who has fallen to the fear he has held within him. Usher’s twin sister, Madeline, has Usher on edge thinking that she is dead. When they bury her, she comes back to life and takes him away to die with him. They are the last two of the family of Ushers.
Readers like an ending that is like a puzzle. They like to have to use their own imagination to interpret the ending of the story. One author that make the ending extremely interesting is Edgar Allan Poe. The ending of many of Poe's work is left ambiguous. In The Fall of the House of Usher the cause of the house falling was the dramatic effect of natural causes.
The narrator feels “utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium” (“Fall of the House of Usher”474). The narrator openly confesses that he uses drugs and that he is depressed which can cloud a person 's judgement. By the end of the story the narrator becomes frighten by the house but says, “irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame; and, at length, there sat upon my very heart an incubus of utterly causeless alarm. Shaking this off with a gasp and a struggle, I uplifted myself upon the pillows, and, peering earnestly within the intense darkness of the chamber, hearkened --I know not why, except that an instinctive spirit prompted me --to certain low and indefinite sounds which came, through the pauses of the storm, at long intervals, I knew not whence” (“The Fall of The House of Usher” 488). At this moment the narrator has become more frightened than ever and it is unlikely that see things for what
Upon seeing her, he falls to the ground, literally scared to death. At this time the narrator flees the House of Usher as it crumbles behind him as he makes his escape. This peculiar ending leads one to draw their own conclusions as to shy the house fell and what held the house up during the story. One possible solution to this query is that the house was never there, that it only existed in the mind of the narrator. Another may be that the narrator is dead, and the house is in a part of the spirit world.
“The Fall of the House of Usher,” a gothic fiction short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, is pervaded by multiple examples of post-structuralist philosopher Jacques Derrida’s philosophy of trace. A close examination of the narrative reveals a distinct trace between incestual conception and the current condition of the Usher siblings through the physical and mental hinders which oppress them; a relationship between the occupants of the Usher estate and the trace of themselves which they inflict on the outside of it; and the traces of the author’s personal life within the storyline through the motif of live entombment. Articulated by philosopher Jacques Derrida, the philosophy of trace identifies the relationship between the absent and the presence
Throughout “The Fall of the House of Usher,” metaphor and symbolism are heavily relied upon to express the extent of the madness that resides within the Usher House. In the short story, Poe creates a symbolic parallel between the art and stories that are seen and told. It can be implied, from a painting, in the Usher house, that Lady Madeline Usher is still alive. The reader can also imply that there is a hidden tunnel or room under the entirety of the house. “The Mad Trist” indirectly tells the reader of Lady Madeline’s escape from the tomb she had been placed in.
Sometimes being alone can be beneficial for some in small doses, however constant loneliness can annihilate a person. Edgar Allen Poe explores how isolation strengthens internal fear which leads to the metal break through “The Fall of the house of Usher.” The narrator's experiences are explained in great detail along with Poe dropping hints at what is to come throughout the story. He explains the extreme isolation of the Usher’s in order to convey the impact has on the body and mind. Poe uses the reader’s five senses and multiple connections in the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” to manifest how social confinement bolsters internal fear which leads to the psychological break down on a person.
In “The Fall of the House of Usher” the tone gives off an eerie and bizarre feeling. This is similar to many of Poe’s other short stories but this piece the most. The tone is gloomy compared to “The Black Cat” that Poe has also written. The author starts off the story with immense details of the setting. The readers get a dark vibe from these details.
The fall of the house of usher uses a gothic tone throughout the story, in this case we can see different tones. Mood is the emotion or feeling produced by the piece. Throughout the story we see a dark, mysterious and somber mood. For example when the narrator said “I beheld him gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of the profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary sound… I felt if creeping upon me, by slow yet certain degrees, the wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressive superstitions”. He created a creepy mood and a tone where you start to see that Roderick is going crazy, because he has started to hear and see things that are not
In the “Fall of the House of Usher,” Roderick Usher prematurely buries his sister, Madeline Usher, because he thinks she has died from an unknown illness. Poe describes the burial as, “We replaced and screwed down the lid, and having secured the door of iron, made out the way with the toll…” (Poe 425). When Roderick bolted the iron lid upon his sister’s coffin, all trust that had previously been built between the two had been broken. In Poe’s life, after the burial of his wife and mother, he felt like he could never trust anyone as well.
